I'm a full time Mom and personal chef to my four beautiful, smart, busy, food allergic children. I've never been formally diagnosed ADD, but...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Socca

This is my culinary adventure for today. I'm sure that if I can cook it with out it sticking or burning, the kids will love it.

This thin chickpea flour (free of almost everything) pancake hails from Nice, but it’s rarely seen outside the South of France (except in Genoa where’s it called a Farinata). I'm hoping that since this is so easy, some restaurants will add it to their menu and we might be able to eat out occasionally.

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until large lumps of flour are incorporated and mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes; do not over mix. Cover and rest in the refrigerator at least 1 hour. Heat a nonstick pan or cast iron pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add about 1 teaspoon olive oil and swirl it around to coat the pan. Add 1/4 -1/2 cup batter (the amount depends on the size of your pan)and quickly rotate the pan to spread evenly (so it’s thin like a crepe). Cook until socca is slightly brown on the edges. Run a spatula underneath to loosen socca from the pan, and remove from heat. Repeat with remaining batter. Season with freshly ground black pepper and serve.UPDATE: When I made this today, my batter did not spread out to the edges of the pan. Next time, I'll weigh the chickpea flour to see if maybe mine was too thick. Ours were crispy-lacy on the edges and I turned them over like pancakes or tortillas. They were yummy and take less time to make than our new favorite snack, Farinata. They were not hard to make, I didn't get to judge the texture of a cool one, since we ate them all before even one cooled down!

UPDATE AGAIN! Socca batter works great in our waffle iron. The kids went crazy for the socca waffles. I am so happy to have something that tastes yummy for the whole family! It takes a while (about 5 minutes per waffle) but my kids are SO worth it!